


Running Scared

by SuperMutantMeatShield



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Developing Friendships, Diamond City, Friendship, Goodneighbour, Hurt/Comfort, Origin Story, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 11:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10593372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperMutantMeatShield/pseuds/SuperMutantMeatShield
Summary: Set before the events of Fallout 4. Detective Nick Valentine is heading back to Diamond City from the coast below Salem when he finds a young girl, unconscious, inside of a parking garage. What starts as a mystery of finding out who the girl really is sets the foundations for a long-term friendship and enduring tension between the pair.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Right off the bat, I had to get this story off my chest before continuing Don't Tread On The Bear. It just may be pretty necessary to my crazy headcanon in future chapters ;) Enjoy!

“Hey Shiv, we've got a live one!”

_The girl had managed to lose a few of the followers south of the Dunwich excavation site. Dusk had enveloped the arid plains in an amber glow. Still, she was so far away from the walls of Diamond City..._

“Eh-heh, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout brother, man, she's ripe-- wait, she bleeding?!”

_She kept her palm jammed into the mortal wound above her collarbone, glazed with her own blood, as she hurried towards the road. With every sharp breath, she grew weaker and weaker. Each step heavier than the last. She knew she was in trouble when the pain had dulled into numbness. She felt cold, weightless..._

“Fuck! I didn't do nothin' Shiv, man! Uh, she was like this--”

“Shut up! And don't get ahead of yourself! We want her alive for--”

_Slipping back into consciousness, she felt rough hands feeling all over her body. The familiar 'click' of her late father's trusty pistol, in the hands of another. She screamed..._

Nick Valentine was heading back to Diamond City, after a frustrating visit to Longneck Lukowski's Cannery, when he found the girl's body. He was travelling south-west along the road that kept around the Massachusetts Bay when he became aware of a commotion coming from inside the ruins of the Lynn Pier parking garage. The synth detective felt as if he'd already wasted a day trying to reason with a halfwit, why not swoop in to teach a group of unsuspecting scum a lesson?

As he jogged across the cracked road, he saw movement in between the concrete slats. 

“Can it, bitch!”

A struggle and a scream. The sound of gun metal, a heavy handed strike, connecting with bone.

“Shiv! What have you done, ma--”

“FUCK!”

Nick whipped into the doorway, planting his booted feet in the earth, and fired four steady shots in the goons' backs before they could say: _We got company!_ That wasn't the end of the ordeal, though. The bigger of the two fell to one knee and raised his head to glance at his death reckoner: two yellow headlights in a round, plated skull.

“Holy shit! It's the Tin Ma--”

Nick finished him off before the tough could insult him. 

“Eh, I guess I've always preferred 'synth scum'.” He answered the corpse, nonchalantly, as he emptied the chamber. “And how the hell do you know about Oz?”

The victim was slumped against a wall in the alcove, unconscious. When Nick recognized her face, he froze. Semi-dried and congealed blood spilled over her front from a deep gash in her neck. She had to be unconscious from the loss of blood as much as from the pistol-whip. 

“ _Dammit_.” He grumbled before rushing to her side. The girl still had a pulse but he knew there wasn't much time. There was no way he'd be able to carry her all the way back to Diamond City to see Dr. Crocker, alive. An old friend in Goodneighbour might be able to help, though.

~

“Detective Valentine, must you always forget that I am a neurologist and not a first aid practitioner?”

“You know I would've taken her to one if I could, Amari. There was nowhere else I could take her.”

“I'm only teasing, Nick.” Amari smirked as she worked with her nimble, latex gloved hands to stitch up the wound in the bowl above the girl's collarbone. “Carrying around a couple of Stimpacks wouldn't be so difficult would it?”

The detective chuckled, “Last time I checked, they don't work so well on me.”

The doctor rolled her eyes. “Hush, you know what I meant.”

The synth crossed his arms as he settled in a chair next to one of Amari's signature memory lounger pods, mild satisfaction creeping across his expression.

“So,” Amari began, “You told me how you found this poor girl but you didn't tell me why you've decided to escort her back to Diamond City--”

“The kid's gonna be okay?” He interrupted, bouncing to the edge of his seat.

Amari sighed, “Believe me, I wouldn't be using these sutures at all if she wasn't. She lost quite a lot of blood and she happened to be horribly dehydrated as well but who _is_ drinking enough water these days? She'll make a full recovery. But... back to my original question.”

“Which was?”

“Really Nick?” Amari tilted her head quizzically towards the synth. “I just might have to get someone to take a look at your components while you're here.”

“Ouch.” Nick frowned.

“Tell me about this girl, Nick. You're familiar. I can tell.”

Nick shrugged, “I don't _know_ her, per se, but I have seen her out and about in Diamond City.”

“Ah, so she lives there.”

“Yeah, she turned up a couple weeks back, bought a shack near the front of the market but I haven't seen her interact with anyone except for the damn Noodle-tron... but that doesn't count. She ignores everyone, hides in her shack for most of the day. She came with another girl, a little one. Can't be older than two or three years old--”

“Could be a little sister?”

“Or a daughter...”

“Nonsense, Nick! She can't be older than fifteen herself!”

“Heh, nonsense? I beg to differ.” The detective shook his head. “You know what this world is like, Amari. There are a lot of monsters out there...”

“It makes me sick.” Amari paused from sterilizing the girl's newly closed wound and studied her face. A reddish bruise bloomed outwards from the duct crevice of her left eye, as blush as her chapped lips. “She's a very pretty young girl. Whatever the case is, I think there's a lot of pain in her life to just leave like that.”

“Well, the Jewel's far from perfect.”

“Nick?”

“Hm?”

“I know that we don't know this girl at all, hell, we don't even know her name, but I think it would be a nice gesture to keep an eye on her and the child, maybe help them get their bearings?”

“I know. I should've done that the day they arrived. I just didn't want to bother her, besides how do I know if she's seen a synth before or not?”

Amari laughed. “Yeah, that might be a bit of a shocker. Especially with the CPG incident and all. But I think you'll have already shown her with saving her life that you're not a cold, killing machine. In my mind, it would be best, if we show the future generations that not all synths are to be feared.” 

“Be careful, Amari. You might be displaying where your sympathies lie a bit too plainly.”

“You know very well that I have none. Except, perhaps, to science.”

The detective groaned.

“Irma!” Amari hollered.

Casual footsteps were heard above Dr. Amari's basement lab. A woman in an extravagant gown appeared in the stairwell. “Yes, what is it?”

“Irma, could you please make up a pallet on the floor in the spare dressing room? There should be a few blankets in the closet that haven't been completely devoured by moths.”

“Certainly.” Irma nodded. “Will you be staying for the night as well, Nicky?”

It was instances like this that Nick Valentine was glad that he couldn't blush. “Hm. I appreciate the offer, if that's what you're making, Irma, but I think I could go for a cold pint of crude at the Third Rail tonight... might pay my respects to the Mayor while I'm at it.”

“Pity,” Irma frowned, “Though I was never good at sitting up all night with you anyways.”

“Goodnight, Irma.” Nick rasped and turned back to Amari just as she lifted up the girl's shirt to stick a Stimpack into her hip.

“Night, hon.” Irma called out as she stepped back up to the lobby.

“I guess everything's set.” Amari said.

“I guess so.” Nick stood up from the chair and patted down his trench coat. “Thanks for patching up the kid.”

“I didn't really have a choice did I?” The doctor smirked. 

“I guess not. I'm still glad that I can count on someone around these parts.”

“Nick?”

The detective turned back to Amari as he straightened his fedora, “Ye-eah?”

“I meant what I said earlier... about helping her out when you get back home. You have to--”

“I know, I know.” Nick's eyes passed over the girl's body on the gurney again. He lied to Amari when he said that he hadn't interacted with her before. It made him feel the slightest bit uneasy that he had lied to one of his good friends. Why? There _had_ to more to this young girl's story. Was he trying to protect her? He didn't know what from, but it perplexed the detective to no end. 

~

It was the dead of night; the only souls in the market at that hour happened to be the usual band of artificial intelligence (Percy, Takahashi, and Nick), the girl in question, and a couple of snoozing D.C. guards. Nick actually happened to be coming down the steps from the stadium entrance when he walked past her huddled behind the industrial shelving inside of the bisected trailer attached to the shack. She was sobbing uncontrollably. Nick almost moved on, not wanting to bother or scare her in her time of vulnerability, but that wasn't in the detective's nature. It just wasn't.

Something like a thought, or a distant memory of another life, flashed in Nick's head. What would Jenny have done? She probably would have kicked the old Nick Valentine for passing on by, throwing that engagement ring right out of the window of their downtown Boston apartment. And he almost did keep walking: when he made it to the center of the market he heard cries coming from within the girl's home as well. It sounded like the younger one was bawling, howling with tears inside of the shack. It must have tugged on _some_ kind of wire inside of him.

He turned on his heel and walked right back to the trailer. He smiled at the teenage girl as she looked back up into those yellow light sockets. She was a ball of anxiety, shaking as he pulled her onto her feet and as they walked over to Power Noodles.

“You hungry, kid?” Nick asked.

She just stared back at him, silently, arms crossed tightly across her chest, mouth agape. Her glassy eyes could have burned a hole right through him, until she nodded.

“Nan-ni shimasho-ka?”

“What?” The girl blurted out.

“It's simple, just watch.” Nick smiled. “Takahashi?”

“Nan-ni shimasho-ka?” The protectron repeated.

“Yes.” Nick answered, prompting Takahashi's preparation sequence. “Hey, why don't you grab a stool and I'll bring the bowl over to you. My treat.”

He watched as her expression softened and she complied. Sure, the teenager looked to be puzzled with what was happening but she seemed to have accepted it. Soon enough, she had a steaming bowl of salty broth and soggy noodles in front of her, which she slurped down happily. 

“Here are some extra caps if the little one can stomach a bowl.” Nick placed a handful of Nuka Cola bottlecaps on the table. “I don't kn--”

“It's fine. Thank you, sir.” 

“The kid speaks! The name's Nick.” He held out his spider-like hand.

“Thanks Nick.” 

She didn't return the shake.

“Stay outta trouble.” The synth detective chuckled. 

“I will.” 

_She wont_ , Nick thought to himself as he trekked back into the shadows of the marketplace. 

~

“Do you think she'll be awake when I come back tomorrow morning?”

Dr. Amari shook her head, “I can't say that for sure. Other teens of her age tend to just sleep the day away.”

“I'll come back in the morning anyways. Better to get the 'scaring' over and done with earlier rather than later, the same goes for getting back to the Jewel.”

“And before I forget, what on Earth do you think she was doing out there on the coast, alone, to begin with?”

“I have no idea, Amari. This has all been enough for one night.” Nick shook his head as he laughed. “I'm gonna need to know her name first.”

And just before he turned to leave the Memory Den, Nick Valentine was almost sure that he saw a corner of the girl's lip twitch into a smirk.

_She'll be a tough one, all right._

 

~

The girl dreamed of a soundless desert. She tread upon cracked earth through the middle of a billowing dust storm. The landscape brought upon a deep sense of longing within her; distant memories of villages, caravans, a cloud in her tiny lungs that caused her to cry throughout the night. The warmth of another body that had carried her, unwillingly, and prayed for her health. Sometimes, the carrier held the girl and sang to her, even, captivated in the wonder of her being. Other times, the carrier exemplified the true emotional capacity of their tender age, desired to be rid of this sick little baby girl. Then the winds came, hitting their backs from the west as it carried both of them to outer lands.

The very same carrier, a woman in rags and gray all over, sat on her hands and knees in the thick of the storm. As the girl edged closer, whispers broke through the silence of the world. Sensing a presence the gray face, pocked with abrasions and burns, found its sight, red-rimmed eyes glowing in the dust.

~

The girl woke up thrashing on an unfamiliar floor. Musty curtains hung from the ceiling above her head, a rippling sea of red. 

_RED_.

She jolted upwards abruptly, groping for the wound that she thought had been her death sentence before she passed out, another bad dream buried with all the rest. The stitching pricked her fingers as they slid over the gash under the neckline of a relatively clean, oversized t-shirt she had been dressed in. Numbness may have set in but she became aware of an ache as she stood up, shaking a damp article off of her lap. On the bedroll, at her feet, was a towel rolled into a small square, stained through with blood.

Mirrors lined the walls around the room above antique vanity tables. Still curious to the extent of the damage, she moved to one of the sturdy chairs at a vanity and fumbled with the lightswitch at the edge of the mirror. The bulbs crackled to life, illuminating her bruised face in the dirt-caked mirror. Her left eye was half-swollen and reddish-purple all over, stinging to the touch. On the opposite side of her body, she stretched the neck of the t-shirt again so she could see the wound in all its unsightliness. She didn't know much about first aid, not now at least, but she saw that the stitching had been done with care and not by the sloppy hands of a doped-up raider wanting to save her for later. Despite this, the girl already had an escape route in mind.

~

Amari caught the girl just as she was trying to squeeze her way through a long-out of use ventilation shaft in the ceiling. She had somehow managed, quietly enough, to stack two dressing vanities on top of each other at the back of the room and had pried off the grille using god knows what, now laying on the floor with screws all around. The doctor was impressed to say the least.

“Dear, there's no need for all this.”

Her head appeared from out of the shaft, breathing heavily, and gripping her neck in visible pain.

“Wouldn't you like to sit and have something to eat? You must be starving!” Amari smiled.

The girl nodded bashfully and hopped down from the perch, following the woman in a lab coat to another room in the building. It would be okay, she thought. This woman's warmth put her at ease.

~

The girl was ravenous, having run out of potato crisps and bubblegum long before she'd arrived at the crater the previous afternoon. Dr. Amari and Irma had seemed to have underestimated this as well. She inhaled a few tins of Cram, a can of Greasy Prospector pork and beans, and a box of Dandy Boy apples, sometimes interchangeably, causing Irma to squirm in her bathrobe. The girl only stopped to empty a can of purified water at the end of her feast, hiccuping loudly.

“Sorry,” She whispered, clearing her throat.

“That's quite alright.” Amari chuckled, across the small table. “You'll need all that energy.”

She nodded a few times, wiping her mouth and pushing her mess of dark hair back from her face. She was struggling to make eye contact with the doctor. “Th-thanks for patchin' me up and all, Miss...”

Amari shook her head and sipped her coffee. “Dr. Meher Amari. Tell me... what would your name be?”

“Mine?” She stuck a thumb at her chest and raised her eyebrows, comically. “Oh, I'm Piper.”

“Okay, Piper.” Amari smirked and narrowed her eyes. “It's nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Piper smiled, hunching her shoulders.

“So...” Amari started, “I know it may be a bit of a touchy subject but what were you doing so far from Diamond City, Piper? How did you get that wound... there.”

“Do I have to be honest?” Piper asked, unsure.

“I'd hope so.” Amari looked off into the parlour of the Memory Den. “But I wouldn't push you to tell me either way.”

“Could you tell me how I got here, instead?” Her immediate awkwardness was oddly endearing to Amari.

“As long as you're not in any trouble with a group of chem-thirsty raiders from Salem.”

Piper scrunched her nose and lowered her eyes, “Nah, I just had to sort out some things... family stuff. But that didn't turn out so well, did it?” She smiled as she said this, and it almost sounded as unimportant as her delivery, if it weren't for her eyes giving away her disappointment.

“Nick Valentine brought you here, to Goodneighbour. He found you in the Lynn Pier Parking garage quite a ways from here.”

She snorted, “Wow. Tell him I say thanks.”

“You can tell him yourself, he'll be here pretty soon to take you back home.”

Piper shook her head as she stood, “It's okay, I'll just--”

“I wouldn't advise you going alone. I know you might want to but in this condition? No way. He can get you back home to your sister... safely.” 

Suddenly, the door opened in the parlour and Irma poked her head in. “Nick's back.”

“Speak of the devil!” Amari rasped. “I'll get your things from the lab.”

Piper frowned.

“Cheer up, now! He doesn't bite unless you forget to feed him a couple of screws and cutting fluid.”

~

With the girl in tow, Nick had made the decision to take the longer route back to Diamond City via a north-south cutting bridge just shy of Bunker Hill, west from there along the water, and then southwards from another bridge when he could spy Cambridge Polymer Labs up ahead. Whether this route was safer than the perilous mazes of rubble through central Boston's core was debatable but it was a route that was favored by the old synth. It was more scenic, too. Besides this wasn't the type of escort where he wanted to see if the kid could handle herself against Super Mutants and other ferals. But god knows what the kid had seen during her little excursion all the way to the boundaries of Salem county. He hoped that she hadn't needed to fire that pistol as much as he'd surmised when he had inspected it at The Third Rail the night before.

She didn't seem to mind or protest any of his directions anyway.

For most of the way the pair exchanged small talk. Nick had been mindful that she didn't seem like one to open up very easily to just anyone. Especially a synth, who she'd probably been taught to fear as a child. Instead, the detective tried to relay information or trivia about some of the landmarks they passed. Most of the time, she listened silently. _Was she even listening at all?_ he thought. One thing was for sure, every time he brought up a place that may have had a shady, or secret, history, she perked up: asking questions, maybe getting too distracted when she was supposed to be mindful that they were treading through a garden filled with frag mines. It was clear to Nick that she was an incredibly curious young girl, obviously a fish-out-of-water in Boston, and that's exactly why there was no more natural marine life in the Commonwealth. He had to protect kids like her at all costs or they'd get blown up, cooked, or worse: end up a chem fiend like so many other young, lost souls he'd seen.

She was alright, though. A bit arrogant and reckless, clearly, but a decent kid by Nick's standards.

Her name was Piper Wright and that's all he got. And as for him? Well, she was already taking notes on Nick Valentine.

~

“Don't you think it was a bit... reckless to leave a little kid alone like that?”

“Meh. Natalie can take care of herself.” She was picking at her fingers.

“Or maybe that's what you want to believe.”

“Look mister, I appreciate you saving me from those raiders 'n all but me and my sis are fine on our own. She knows what to do if I don't come back one day.”

So they _are_ sisters, he thought. Nick could've sighed with relieve despite being mildly annoyed with her audaciousness. A million questions were still piled up in some strain within his head.

“Wait! I know what you're thinking,” She snorted. “I've been asked about it before... I know probably a lot of people think about it-- but they don't bother to ask me, that's for sure. But for the record, I didn't snatch her...”

“What's that?”

“Come on!? Really?” She pushed herself up onto her feet and moved in on Nick, like she had a secret she was just bursting to tell. “Man! You call yourself a detective and you don't even know about the Harwich snatchings?!”

“I don't.” He replied, dryly. “That's kind of out of my jurisdiction.”

She tilted her head, though not missing a beat in her excitement, “Juris-wha-wha? Anyway-- no excuses. I was obsessed with them for awhile, the snatchings. There was this synth like you and--”

Nick winced.

“Sorry, enough about that then. What were _you_ thinking of?”

“Yeah...” He paused, minding his wording. “Your sister. Natalie, you said?”

Piper nodded. “Nat, for short.”

He sighed, “I thought you might've been Nat's mother.”

“Yeah, well,” she bit her lip, “Our mother had me real young and then Nat came along a lot later. It happens. And y'know what?”

“Hm?”

“You're right. Was that extra irresponsible of me or what? Leaving Nat like that. Ugh.”

Nick chuckled as he pulled a pack of Grey Tortoises out of his pocket. Almost immediately she asked if she could bum a cigarette off of him.

“Not so fast. Remember these things pose no health hazard to me as they would to you.”

“Well, duh!”

“You're what, eighteen? Wait until you're older to waste your caps on cigarettes.”

“I'm sixteen. And I know where to scav for smokes without spending any caps, thank you very much. C'mon, I'm wounded here!”

He grunted, holding the pack out to her. “Thank you.” It was a foolhardy mistake: she nicked three and stuffed one of the extra ones in her pocket and the other extra behind her ear for later. “See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Light, please.”

“You really know how to push it, kid.” He muttered, passing his lighter to her.

“Now now,” She started as she lit up, “Consider it charity. The past two days haven't gone so well for me, this could be one of the last smokes I ever have.”

They were taking a break only minutes from Diamond City, near the Chestnut Hillock Reservoir, when a small pack of feral ghouls descended on them from the west. The pair could have made a run for the city gates, just past the Fens. Instead, the synth detective found himself now on the receiving end of orders from a trigger-happy teenage girl. Despite her having limited mobility in her firing arm from the stabbing, she did well picking the poor bastards off with a weathered 10mm. Nick was even impressed that she seemed to know that the trick was to take out their feeble legs first and then worry about finishing them off later. The legs are like “sponges”, were her exact shouted words to him, from behind the cover of a fallen tree. Once the ghouls were silenced, they assembled back on the path towards home. Nick saw that her emerald eyes were alive with adrenaline in the dying sunlight, cheeks rouged by all the activity.

“I really don't like to do that, I swear.” She giggled, emptying her clip and racking the slide like a pro.

“Sure,” Nick acknowledged, trying to read her composure. It was time. “Did you teach yourself how to--”

She interrupted even before he could finish staring at the ground behind him. “That was all luck then and there. I'm a messy shot, Miles always told me that but he helped me a lot, taught me a few things, I guess.”

“Miles?” Nick inquired sitting on a tree stump in front of the abandoned townhouse at the end of the row.

“Hm? Oh, he's Nat's-- well, he _was_ her, I mean, _my_ dad, too, you could say.”

“'You could say?” Nick's sockets widened.

She shook her head, avoiding eye contact all over again. “I-it's complicated, Nick. He was murdered and then, then that's how Nat and I got to Diamond City. He was a great man. I miss him everyday. He told us we'd be safe in the city and have nothing to worry about. He couldn't have been more right, I guess, but it wasn't enough for ol' Piper.”

“So what, did you go hunting for the guy who killed your dad? He flocked to Salem?”

“Nope. He'd already been taken care of. Not by me.” She was reminiscing, unfiltered, “I guess I had a little to do with the mob of little Harwich giving the guy his reckoning but I wasn't the one to put a bullet through his heart, unfortunately.”

“So who, or what, were you looking for then?” Nick inquired, as thoughtfully as possible. “I understand if you're not comfortable explaining but it would at least help me sleep at night knowing you're not in any trouble.”

“Wait, can you even sleep if you're a synth?” She furrowed her brows.

“I can't.” He smiled, sweetly. “I just want to make sure you're safe.”

“Okay, Nick.” She grimaced, a side of her lip curling into a weak smile, hesitating. “I was looking for our mother.”

“She still kicking?” Nick asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

And it was then that Nick realized that he had pushed a bit too far, dug a little bit too deep. Piper crumbled, her forehead in knots. 

“Kid, you alright?” He stood up, abruptly.

She sobbed, openly, turning away from him the instant he found her vulnerability. “I'm fine, I'm fine. It's... stupid.”

Nick searched for something comforting to say, coming up a bit short and uninspired for his taste. “It's not stupid, I'm sure.”

She turned back towards him, wiping the tears away from her bruised face. “This,” She pointed to the dark swelling over her left eye, “was from the raiders you saved me from, as you know, but this,” She patted her coat over the stab wound, “that was ol' Eileen Wright's doing.”

“Christ,” Nick muttered. “I'm sorry--”

“S'okay, Nick.” She grinned, squinting in the sunset. “She's sick, y'know? I don't really blame her. She hasn't really taken well to all of the rad-therapy she's been undertaking with her new family. I saw it myself.”

It didn't take Nick long to put two and two together. He knew those parts well but for some reason couldn't imagine why she'd want to go up that far. It all made a bit more sense now. He'd neglected the existence of one particular locale, a territory quite far from this group of people's main stationing down south, in the Glowing Sea. It was a crater where the baddest eggs of their flock went, bitter and in denial, that they couldn't handle the geiger-breaking radiation levels in the Sea or at their headquarters in Maine. To have a parent leave her and her baby sister for those kooks? The poor kid.

He didn't know how it all went down exactly, up there in the ruined crater, but now he couldn't get the idea out of his head: how a mother could do such a thing to her own beautiful daughter. There was an old world term for it, Nick remembered, in the job. Attempted filicide. Messy stuff.

“Gee, I'm real sorry Piper. About your mother.”

“If it makes you feel any better it's kind of what I expected?” She shrugged, voice lilting at the end of her sentence.

“Piper, listen to me. It's gonna hurt,” the detective placed both of his hands on either side of her arms. “but you're gonna have to let go. It'll only cause you more pain if you try to bring her back.”

“I know,” Her eyes were stinging hot again.

“And when we get back through the gate? Your little sister needs you. More than ever. You need to give her a foundation so that you both can thrive in this hellhole. Believe me, the Commonwealth is a cruel place. It's everywhere, even underground. Diamond City can be a pain in the ass, too, as you'll soon find.” He paused, backing away. “I have to admit, I'm not usually gone this long. Situations in the market may very well be cloudy with a chance of chaos when we get back in there.”

Piper giggled, showing a toothy grin.

“That's the spirit, kid.”

“Y'know, you're alright, Mr. Valentine.”

“Please,” He started, in mock hurt, “Just call me Nick.”

“Okay, Nicky.”

“Now let's make a run for it. I think little Natalie has waited long enough.”

~

The market was quiet as the girl and the synth came down the stadium steps and into the city. Shops were closing up for the night and all that was left were a few of the guards, who bid their respects to the detective as he took Piper to the door of her shack. 

“Go see Dr. Crocker if that gash doesn't heal up in a few days--”

“I will.”

“And let me know if you ever need help. I'm just in the alley to the back--”

“I know where to find ya. Thanks again Nick.”

“Don't mention it.” He drawled, feeling a bit like a father who didn't know when to give his daughter some space when she was about to go out for a night on the town. Jenny would have been amused.

He watched Piper kick the door open and through the crack in the doorway saw a tiny person in pajamas, snoring on the couch. Interestingly, too, there were papers spread everywhere all over the floor of the sitting area.

“What the hell were you working on in there?”

“Nothin'.” She contested.

“Stay outta trouble, Piper. I mean it. I don't know if I'll be able to bail you out next time.”

“I've got it.” She answered before disappearing behind the door only to open it once again. “Let's just say there's one secret I can't give away right now, Nick.” She left him with a wink and locked the door up tight behind her.

He grunted. _Jeez_. It definitely wouldn't be the last time he'd be reckoning with Piper Wright.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing the Nick/Piper dynamic! I hope it was at least *true to the in-game characters* and lore. Let me know if I made any big screw-ups there, haha! As always, thanks for reading.


End file.
